Hydrogen to make a big comeback

Carmakers revive promising fuel cell research

By David Booth, Postmedia News

Originally published: April 10, 2013

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As I have long lamented, one of the more disastrous results of the incredible hype surrounding battery-powered electric cars (BEVs) has been the almost complete stagnation of hydrogen fuel cell research for automobile use. Once the darling of the alternative fuel set — eight short years ago, Vancouver’s Ballard Power was hyped as much as Tesla is today — when they saw that the focus, both media and governmental, was shifting toward battery-powered EVs.

Though the U.S. George W. Bush administration pushed hard for continuing research, under President Barack Obama, the BEV has taken centre stage while funding for fuel cell vehicle research has been cut. Indeed, never was the hydrogen fuel cell’s fall from grace more apparent than last summer when Honda, Mercedes-Benz and Toyota displayed their latest fuel cell vehicles at the Toronto-hosted, World Hydrogen Energy Conference and no one showed up. Well, OK, a couple of geeks and I showed up, but compared to the media attention focused on any electric vehicle announcement, the turnout was pathetic.

Of course, since then, EV sales, with the possible exception of Tesla’s playthings for the rich and self-righteous, have tanked. BEV sales accounted for less than 0.05% of the Canadian automotive market last year, not exactly lending credence to Nissan CEO Carlo Ghosn’s prognostications that 10% of all worldwide automobile sales would be battery-powered by 2020. Even the outgoing American Energy Secretary, Steven Chu, who previously poo-poohed the fuel cell-powered automobile, has hinted at an increase in funding.

And so manufacturers are beginning to de-mothball their dormant hydrogen fuel cell strategies, Mercedes pushing ahead with a B-Class prototype, Honda its FCX and even hybrid-focused Toyota unveiling a FCV-R hydrogen-fuelled concept car. BMW and Toyota have joined forces to jointly engineer fuel cell systems and Daimler, Ford and Nissan have decided to join forces to accelerate fuel cell vehicle research. I also suspect there will be a continuing ramp-up in development if the EV market continues to falter.

Their quest may have been given a major leg up according to a recent report in scienceblog.com. According to the website, a team of Virginia Tech researchers have developed an efficient, low-cost method of extracting large quantities of hydrogen from plants. Indeed, the Game Changer In Alternative Energy article claims that the process is low-cost, environmentally friendly and works with just about any plant.

If I am reading this right — and please remember the last time I took biology was back in Grade 10, which was sometime in the Mesozoic period — the process developed by associate professor Y.H. Percival Zhang uses xylose, one of the most abundant simple sugars in plants, to produce hydrogen by splitting water molecules. Unlike other more costly methods of producing hydrogen gas, Prof. Zhang’s biomass system is said to require no costly heavy metals, creates no greenhouse gasses and, of course, uses a thoroughly renewable natural resources. And, before you think of tarring the research with the same feathers as the much-maligned biomass-to-ethanol industry, this weed-to-hydrogen production method is said to be extremely efficient and has a net energy gain (unlike, say, ethanol, which can have a net energy loss when it is produced from biomass).

If this is all true, Prof. Zhang’s discovery of a renewable, low-cost source of hydrogen goes a long way in solving the fuel cell vehicle’s greatest roadblock to mass production, namely the creating of an affordable refuelling infrastructure. Of course, that still doesn’t solve the problem of onboard fuel storage — long-term storage of high-pressure hydrogen in an automobile fuel tank is problematic as the gas either needs to be kept cryogenically cold or be vented — but Prof. Zhang’s method of production may be one more hurdle leaped in the race for a hydrogen power infrastructure.

Hydrogen fuel cells would certainly expand the market for emissions-free automobiles. A fuel cell vehicle is nothing but an EV fuelled by hydrogen rather than a battery. The byproduct of the process is water vapour. Yes, steam. Motorists could trundle, gasoline-free, anywhere they wanted with none of the range anxiety associated with the current crop of BEVs.

Even the two semi-electric cars — Chevy’s Volt and the plug-in version of Toyota’s Prius — compared in this issue would be vastly improved with the substitution of a hydrogen fuel cell for their small gasoline-fuelled engines. Both could still make use of cheap and plentiful plug-in electricity for in-city motoring while the range-extending re-fuelability of hydrogen would offer long range, admittedly somewhat costlier, but similarly emissions-free, motoring. Indeed, the Volt would be improved by eliminating its relatively poor “after-electricity” fuel consumption of gasoline and the Prius’s comportment would be vastly improved by getting rid of the annoying on-and-off nature of its noisy gasoline engine.